28 March 2007

COSATU and the SACP are holding a two-day bilateral meeting that will conclude today and be followed by a Press Conference tomorrow at 11h00 in COSATU House (10th floor), 1 Leyds Street, Braamfontein.

The agenda of the bilateral is as follows:

1. Building the alliance.

2. Building the SACP as a vanguard movement

3. Draft Strategy and Tactics of the ANC, areas of interest, its strengths and weaknesses and a joint critique.

4. Challenges facing the Federation, building a strong and vibrant COSATU.

The meeting opened with speeches from the General Secretaries of the two organisations. See below for the input of COSATU GS Zwelinzima Vavi.

SACP GS Dr Blade Nzimande has made several significant speeches in recent days for example in Cape Town and Limpopo at the weekend, and yesterday in Johannesburg. Unfortunately the Communist University has not received the text of these speeches.

The Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) is a COSATU affiliate with members currently on strike in a dispute with Blue Ribbon bakeries, a subsidiary of Premier Foods, where the union is demanding normal collective bargaining rights (see link below).

FAWU is calling for a consumer boycott of Iwisa and Impala maize meal, Invicta samp, Snowflake flour range and particularly Blue Ribbon bread. This is not a hardship, comrades. There are plenty of alternatives. Let’s make this one stick for FAWU!

The SACP Western Cape 5th Provincial Congress took place at the weekend in Cape Town. See the link below for the political declaration of the Congress and the announcement of the new office bearers and executive committee (PEC).

The SACP Gauteng Province also held a Congress at the weekend and has announced a Press Conference for tomorrow at 10h00 in the North State Building (7th floor), corner Market and Kruis Streets, Johannesburg. Clearly, this clashes with the press conference in COSATU House at 11h00 (see above). Well-resourced media houses can no doubt send reporters to both places; others will have to decide for themselves which one to attend.

Counterpunch continues to come up with instructive material. The first of two items below shows quite clearly how the monopoly capitalists such as BP can position themselves to be the main beneficiaries of all the “green” agitation (that has been typically carried out on a naïve and shallowly “anti-capitalist” basis). This will not be a surprise to communists. “Greens” will feel outraged and betrayed, but what can they do? Their work of many years is being shamelessly expropriated by the Imperial corporates, and they have neither the theory nor the organisation with which to defend themselves.

In the last article linked below, also from Counterpunch, Patrick Bond correctly foregrounds the role of organised labour in the changing situation in Zimbabwe. Many other documents on the fast-moving Zimbabwe situation can be found at http://groups.google.com/group/zimbabwe-fight-on-dont-mourn; and today there is to be a special SADC meeting in Dar-es-Salaam.

Fidentia was put under permanent curatorship by a court yesterday following the second report from the (previously temporary) curators. Danisa Baloyi announced that she is resigning “from all boards and positions that I hold in public and private organizations, until all matters have been resolved.”